The Flambe Pizza Experiment
by Daylight
Summary: PRJF: A bored Dominic is not a good thing.


_This story is dedicated to the wonderful Angel Mouse who challenged me to write it almost a year ago. Sorry it took so long :)_

**The Flambé Pizza Experiment**

**By Daylight**

"I wish Dai Shi would attack."

Dominic looked hopefully at his morpher, but it refused to beep.

"Right now."

The morpher persisted in its silence.

"With ten thousand Ren Shi."

There was no sign of the black and white minions.

"And a phantom beast with the spirit of the ring-tailed lemur."

The aforementioned beast failed to appear in the doorway.

"Please," the rhino ranger implored.

No alarms sounded, no enemies shouted threats from outside and no panicked citizens ran past the windows. Everything in the Jungle Karma Pizzeria remained peaceful and quiet.

Dom's head fell forward hitting the front counter with a heavy thud.

"You don't really mean that, do you?" questioned Fran sitting beside him.

"Yes!" Dom almost shouted as his head shot back up. "I wish Dai Shi would attack or the ceiling would cave in or the sky would begin raining pickled onions. I just want something to happen."

"Bored?"

"We haven't had a single customer in two hours."

Fran grimaced as she looked around the empty restaurant and the empty, rain soaked streets outside. "I'm sure someone will come soon."

"We have to face it, Fran. Pizza just isn't rainy day food." Rubbing his hands across his face, Dom let out a sigh. "Why didn't I go out to get supplies with the others?"

"I believe your exact words were 'No way am I going out in that flood. I'll man the restaurant where it's nice and dry.'"

Dom groaned.

"You could always do some more cleaning."

"Fran, I've already washed the tops and bottoms of the tables, dusted the outside and inside of the jukebox, scrubbed the stains off the ceiling and scrapped a month's worth of grease out of the oven. I think I'm done cleaning for today."

Suddenly, they spotted a raincoat covered figure walking up to the door. Each grabbing an order pad, they sprang to their feet, but the man just gave the restaurant a cursory look and moved on. Dom and Fran slumped back into their seats resting their chins on their hands as they went back to waiting.

"Ah, I see you're perfecting the art of rain watching," announced RJ as he entered from the kitchen.

"More like invisible customer watching," corrected Dom. "Can't we close. Pleasssse. No one is going to come."

"While there's daylight, there's still hope someone will have an irresistible pizza craving and need us."

"Daylight? Have you looked outside recently?"

RJ gave him a sympathetic smile. "If you've had enough of watching, you can come help me. I'm trying to come up with a new special for next week."

"Thank you," cried Dom throwing up his hands.

Fran followed the two of them as they made their way into the kitchen. "Can I help?"

"Of course," RJ declared, but Dominic frowned.

"Are you sure that's a good idea?"

"What do you mean?" asked RJ.

"Yeah," protested Fran crossing her arms and sending a glare in Dom's direction.

"Theo happened to mention your little chocolate anchovies idea."

Eyebrows raised, RJ said, "So?"

Dom lifted his hands in supplication. "Nevermind."

Rolling up his sleeves, RJ moved over to the kitchen's main counter where sat several blank pizzas and a large variety of ingredients. "Now the art of pizza invention involves picking one main topping, preferably something never seen on a pizza before such as…" He perused the food available. "…basted eggs!" He slapped four onto one of the sauce covered pizza shells.

"Eggs?"

"Yes, and then choosing a contrasting secondary topping like…" His hand hovered over the various ingredients before grabbing some spinach and covering the eggs with it.

"Spinach?"

"Yes, and then a third element that will bring the two toppings together." Shifting through the spices, he chose one and enthusiastically shook it over everything.

Dom glanced at the shaker. "Cinnamon?!!"

"Yes, and finally the thing that completes all pizzas: the cheese. I believe Swiss will do nicely."

As RJ sprinkled the shredded cheese, Fran and Dom exchanged dubious looks.

"Voila!" the wolf ranger declared holding up his finished pizza and admiring it. "I believe I'll call this one Cinnamon Eggcelence. We can all try a slice later," he said as he slid it into the oven. "Now it's your turn."

Dominic spent several minutes looking through the items on the table. He passed on the watermelon, shook his head at the peanut butter, and grimaced when he saw the liver. Playing it safe, he grabbed some mushrooms.

RJ shook his head. "No, no, no. You need to expand your horizons. Think outside the box like Fran's doing."

Glancing over at Fran, Dom saw her sprinkling rosemary over what appeared to be a spaghetti and eggplant pizza.

"I think Gouda will go quite nicely with that," suggested the purple ranger.

"Really? I was thinking more Danish blue."

"Interesting, but it might overpower the eggplant."

"You're probably right," agreed Fran before covering her pizza in the gouda and putting it in the oven next to RJ's.

RJ turned to Dominic expectantly.

"Outside the box?"

"Precisely."

An evil grin spread across Dom's features. "No problem." With quick movements, Dom tossed roast beef and a large handful of hot chilli peppers onto his pizza. Then he added a swirl of vanilla extract, a sprinkle of brown sugar and finished off with mozzarella cheese.

"Better," said RJ as Dom placed his pizza in the oven.

"Oh, I'm not done yet." Pulling a stepping stool over to the far fridge, Dom climbed up and began rooting around on top. There was the sound of clinking glass; then Dominic jumped down a bottle of liquor held triumphantly in his hand.

"Brandy?"

Gazing at the bottle, Fran frowned. "I didn't know we had alcohol. I thought you didn't drink."

"I don't," RJ replied. "But I like to keep some for when the other masters visit."

"Master Swoop really likes his gin and tonics," explained Dom.

"And my father always enjoys his sake."

"And Master Phant is much more tolerable after a couple shots of brandy."

"So, I make sure to keep a healthy supply on hand," finished RJ.

Fran nodded in understanding. "But we can't put brandy on the pizza," she objected. "A lot of our customers are minors."

"Oh, don't worry. There won't be any alcohol left after I light it."

"Light it?" Fran and RJ said in unison their eyes wide.

"It's time for flambé pizza," replied Dom with a grin. "I once had crêpe suzette at this restaurant where they showed how they flambéd the sauce. It was fantastic."

"Ah, but this isn't exactly the same sort of thing…" RJ began.

"Trust me. I know what I'm doing."

"Why am I suddenly having flashbacks of the various disastrous events you dragged me into back when we were students?"

"Those were completely different." Dominic put a hand on RJ's shoulder. "Don't you trust me?"

Suddenly, they heard the sound of the restaurant door opening. "Saved by the customer," declared RJ dashing out of the kitchen before either of the others could react.

**oooooo**

The wolf ranger happily greeted the lone customer to brave the stormy weather and set them up with a table and a menu. While he was waiting for them to order, the door opened once more and in walked three sopping wet rangers carrying the needed supplies.

RJ smiled at his students. "Excellent. Did you get everything on the list?"

"Yeah," said Casey dumping a heavy bag full of cheese on the counter. "It might be a little wetter than you asked for, but it's all there. We practically had to swim to the store to get it."

Lily dropped the bags she was holding and sneezed. "I'm just glad to be back inside where it's warm and dry."

"Agreed," said Theo. "Luckily, even Dai Shi's not stupid enough to attack in this weather or we'd be…" He stopped and frowning, sniffed the air. "Is something burning?"

Just then, Fran burst through the kitchen doors a cloud of smoke following her. "Um, RJ? Did you happen to buy a new fire extinguisher?"

RJ ran into the kitchen followed closely by the others. There he found the center table and all its pizza making ingredients now covered in flames. Acting quickly, he located the newly acquired fire extinguisher and aimed it at the fire. White foam soon coated everything killing the flames and leaving only the black smoke in the air.

Fran coughed waving the smoke out of her face. "So much for flambé pizza."

"Looks more like charcoal pizza to me," commented Theo looking at the blackened remains.

When the smoke finally cleared, RJ was able to see Dom on the other side of the table pressed against the kitchen wall. He clutched a match in one hand and the now empty bottle of brandy in the other. "Maybe next time I'll try a little less brandy," he said giving RJ a sheepish smile.

RJ sighed and decided it was about time he started buying fire extinguishers in bulk.


End file.
